


The Founding of Coldreign

by JesBelle



Category: Heroes of Might and Magic (Video Games), Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 13:45:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9743360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JesBelle/pseuds/JesBelle
Summary: The tragic love story at the center of a would-be undead empire.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I am building every town from Heroes of Might and Magic III in Minecraft (as one does). This is one of the stories that I think up while building. It will appear piecemeal in many books scattered throughout the finished map. It probably is more effective when it is read bit-by-bit in a more atmospheric setting. Here I have presented it more or less as a player is likely to encounter it, so it's a bit non-linear.

Found in every Marketplace and Library --

Next to the castle is the Hall of Darkness where the Dread Knights slumber. I was not offered a look at the interior, for which I was vastly relieved. I understand that both walls and floor are pitch black and the ceiling is open to the sky, so that the effect is much like being at the bottom of a deep grave. The Dread Knights themselves are said to possess sentience, but their hearts literally and figuratively belong to the lich that created them. They know no other motivation than complete devotion to their master.

– excerpt from _Brother Merrick's Aide to Travel: Coldreign_

 

Found in many Libraries, including the ones at Machina, Ceald, and the University --

16, Eighthmonth, Y. 8

It is as I have feared. It was not enough to keep the Balance by bringing the Dungeon-dwellers with us. Now Necromancers have gained a foothold in a previously unknown pocket dimension of this world. It appears that they can only come and go from a portal located in the Southern Highlands, but they hold these mountains fast, and they are poised to attack Claxton. 

The Elves are livid, of course. Necromancy goes against everything they hold sacred. They blame me and Falagar for introducing creatures of evil into this world, but Falagar has no more love of the undead than the Elves do. The Wizards expressed great “dismay” over the situation, which is a little rich since it is one of their own (a wizard named Nenia) who created it. Still, they are allied with the Humans and Elves against this threat.

The Lizard-Folk and the Gnolls have agreed to protect refugees from Claxton and Serenity. These towns must be evacuated lest their denizens become the material with which the Necromancers swell their ranks. The Barbarians will fight, of course, they care little which side they are on so long as there is a fight. I have already made the necessary promises of gold and glory to insure that they fight with us. 

I have little doubt that we can defeat this Lich Queen and her General. The question is, can I talk the others into not destroying them outright? I did not want them, but since the vile creatures are here, perhaps it would better keep the Balance if a few were suffered to remain.

Otherwise, can the ancient enemy be far behind?

\-- excerpt from the Journal of Luna, Suzerain of Ceald

 

Found in a chest in the Captain's Quarters at Fort Whitestar

28, Thirdmonth, Y. 8

Beloved,

I will be late joining you in Ceald. There is some kind of dire problem in the mines south of Claxton - something about large maggots that spring out of stones and swarm the tunnels. Valeska and I are the only knights in Claxton at present who are not attached to guard duty. She made some very pretty speeches about sisters-in-arms and loyalty and such, but in the end, I owe her a favor, so I am the one to go. I will dispatch these beasties quickly, I hope, and then hasten to your side.

I’m glad you like the comb I sent you. It was such an elegant little thing, that I immediately thought of you. I am bringing you about a thousand kisses to go with it.

Love, Anwen

 

29, Thirdmonth, Y. 8

Beloved,

The library is real! I have found a complex like those the old cleric told us about. It is here in the mine. You must come and quickly! Take the Southern Road. Before you reach the bridge just south of Claxton there is a wide, shallow lake on the right. Come up the western shore. There is an easy slope into the highlands beyond that. The mountain is narrow here and a natural hole is pierced in it. Come through and you will find me camped there in the valley. Do not try to gain entry by the mine. They think that I have left for reinforcements against the creatures they call silverfish. I don’t want them to know what I have discovered.

Hurry! I can’t keep them in the dark for long. They are eager to mine in this section because it is rich in emeralds.

Yours, Anwen

 

2, Fourthmonth, Y. 8

Beloved,

I spoke to our contact in Ceald. He says the he knows of at least two dozen who would embrace the offer of eternal life in exchange for fealty to you. I have told him to send no more than three at a time to the meeting place. I will escort them on to you over the next couple of weeks.

Always Yours, Anwen

 

5, Fourthmonth, Y. 8

Beloved,

The Halflings did move their farms south from the Battlement Mesa. They are unprotected, but their new settlement is remote. You would be better to take the peasant farms between Claxton and Serenity. They and the miners will provide many corpses. Be carefull to take all of the miners. If word gets back to Claxton too soon, we will be defeated before we’ve even begun.

I know that you are anxious to begin our new life together, but I beg you to remain cautious. We have all the days of forever ahead of us. 

Love, Anwen

 

Found at various libraries and in the Captain’s office at Fort Whitestar -- 

The lava pool was completed by the evening of 18, Twelthmonth, and the soldiers wasted no time throwing or prodding the lesser undead into it. Then came the liches. We allowed them the dignity of walking in on their own if they chose to, but those that didn’t were pushed. The Dwarves flinched at every enchanted chain lost to the pool, but we didn’t dare to unbind the liches before destroying them.

Finally the only lich left was their Queen. Her jewels had been stripped from her and given to the Barbarians as their battle-geld, but she held in her bony hands a small golden casket. The evil of its magic was such that even the Orcs and Goblins would not touch it. 

At her appearance, the Dread Knights sprang to life and a great tumult was heard as they strained against their chains. Only their General, Anwen, was silent, but it was obvious that all of her attention was on her Queen. 

Nenia walked silently to the edge of the pool, holding her scarred head high. She gazed for a moment at the assembly, then dropped into the pool. The Dread Knights stopped straining against their bonds with a clatter, their wills destroyed with their Queen. A second later, General Anwen dropped also, only an empty pile of badly damaged armor now that the casket containing her enchanted heart was destroyed.

The clerics then brought a small hand cart containing the rest of the enchanted hearts in their iron boxes. These were dumped unceremoniously into the pool, and the rest of the Dread Knights collapsed as their General had done, as the lava melted the boxes and burned the hearts within.

\-- excerpt from _A Memoir of the Lich War_ by Mephala

Found in a chest in the slumber chamber of the Lich Queen of Coldreign -- 

17, Fourthmonth, Yr. 8

Beloved,

How do I say this? I couldn’t say it out loud, so now I write you this letter. I knew that this was coming. You weren’t keeping it a secret. I knew it as I watched you reading those ancient books. I knew it as we reassembled the portal. I knew it as we shared the elation of defeating the guardian dragon of this fell place. But I thought that somehow it wouldn’t matter. Even though my dreams were always filled with the taste of your kisses, the soft fall of your hair on my cheek, the weight of you in my arms, the sound of your beating heart – somehow I thought that the absence of these things would not matter. It was a foolish lie that I told myself – one I repeated to you. You are still beautiful, in a way, though terrible. Your delicate, jeweled skull and graceful, white bones are lovely, as I knew they would be. And yet, I can’t help but long for that grinning mouth to be covered by your soft lips again, for your limbs to be wrapped in flesh, for your ribs to once again contain that beating heart. I long to love you again.

You came to me, elation in your strange new voice. “We will be together forever soon, my love,” you said. “Elduin is the strongest of the vampires. I have chosen him for your sire.” But a vampire still feels the joys of being flesh and blood, Nenia, and I see now that it would be torture for me. There is too little magic in me to become a lich as you are, and you would be unhappy if I became some mindless thing like a wraith.

So, Nenia, tomorrow take my heart. I thought that all I needed was your love, undying and forever, but I see how wrong I was. It is my love for you that gives me purpose and meaning – it is my love for you that I do not want to live without. My heart feels like a wounded beast within my breast, and it screams to be released from its torment. So take it, Nenia, take it and let me have my devotion back, I beg you. 

Yours, Anwen


End file.
